The regulator has not received many complaints, said Arvind Kumar, advisor on broadcasting at TRAI.

“There must be some issues on ground, but TRAI has not received many complaints,” he told ET. “MSOs (multi-system operators) have told us that 100% of their subscribers have been migrated to either the best-fit plans (BFPs) or the selected plans. DTH (direct-to-home) players have achieved about 60%, but Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV are now migrating almost five lakh consumers each, daily.”

Manoj Mathur is still waiting for that to happen. The 64-year-old retiree, who lives in Mumbai’s western suburbs, loves music reality shows and sports. For the past two weeks, he’s not been able to get the channels of his choice, despite calling the local cable operator (LCO) and making his selections on the cable company’s website. He’s been driven to shouting at the unresponsive operator to little effect.

Sameer Shukla, a 48-year-old software professional based in Gurugram, has the channels he wants but his monthly DTH bill has risen 30%. Gwalior-based businessman Ravinder Singh isn’t having a happy time—his mother complains that she hasn’t been able to watch the devotional channels she likes. The cable operator hasn’t been of much help.

TRAI envisioned a transparent regime, where consumers pay only for the channels they want to watch and weren’t forced to subscribe to those they didn’t as part of package deals, lowering bills. The regulator gave viewers until February 1 to submit their choice. When that didn’t work, the deadline was extended to March 31 with distribution platforms told to move consumers to a “best-fit pack” (BFP) that approximated the existing package.

“TRAI, in all fairness, had good intentions,” said a TV broadcaster. But implementation has been a different story, he said. “While there could be debates over the results, the inconvenience it is causing to the general public is humongous.”

Some said there doesn’t seem to be a price advantage under the new system, quite the opposite in fact. TRAI’s new tariff order is good for an individual but it doesn’t account for the fact that four members of a typical Indian family will have different entertainment needs, said the business head of a TV channel.

“My mother wants the cookery channel, I want news and sports, whereas my wife wants all Hindi general entertainment channels. My teenage daughter wants English movies and music channels, and my younger son wants kids’ channels. So, I ended up selecting 51 channels. My bill is up by 70-80%,” he added.

Many consumers feel helpless, finding themselves at the mercy of their service providers’ whims.

These BFPs have become a major cause of angst as distribution platforms are deciding which channels to provide and which to disconnect. Also, in the garb of providing choice, cable companies (MSOs) are trying to force their packs on consumers, according to wide cross-section of viewers who got in touch with ET regarding their TV woes.

LCOs have not issued the forms that consumers need to fill out and appear to be misinformed themselves.

“The cable operator has been trying to fleece me by asking for Rs 1,500 for three months and not providing any choice,” said Mayur Lal, a content writer from Bandra in Mumbai. “When I told him that I will select my channels, he disconnected all pay channels and now is not picking up my calls. I am not getting the channels I have asked for even after submitting the form online two weeks back.”

TRAI had also directed that consumers who makes channel selections--after having been migrated to a best-fit plan—should have those changes effected within 72 hours. Cable operators haven’t been able to implement this, said subscribers.

Call centres of distribution platforms are either not picking up the phone or unhelpful when they do, said the people who spoke or emailed ET.

The MSOs are taking almost 1.5 million consumers off the best-fit plans and providing them their choice of channels on a daily basis, said a senior executive at one of the large MSOs.

“The systems are under pressure and it is taking some time,” he said.

Users said some DTH players haven’t made the process of selecting channels easy.

“It’s a painful thing to sift through all the channels and select and de-select channels of your choice on websites. Many SD (standard-definition) and HD (high-definition) channels are missing from my DTH company’s website, and after spending over an hour, I finally had to take the recommended pack, which is fewer channels from earlier and at a 20% higher price,” said Ramesh Singh, a Lucknow-based lawyer.

None of this affects more tech-savvy viewers, including millennials, who’ve cut the cord, watching the things they want on phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, smart TVs or plugging in dongles.

But everyone else--senior citizens, retired people and housewives—is feeling the frustration.